us smiling) I scarce know any thing they have performed worth wondering at, save that they have been able to draw Philoponus to their Party, and to engage him to the Defence of an unintelligible Hypothesis, who knowes so well as he does, that Principles ought to be like Diamonds, as well very clear, as perfectly solid.
Themistius having after these last words declared by his silence, that he had finished his Discourse, Carneades addressing himself, as his Adversary had done, to Eleutherius, returned this Answer to it. I hop’d for Demonstration, but I perceive Themistius hopes to put me off with an Harangue, wherein he cannot have given me a greater Opinion of his Parts, then he has given me Distrust for his Hypothesis, since for it even a Man of such Learning can bring no better Arguments. The Rhetorical part of his Discourse, though it make not the least part of it, I shall say nothing to, designing to examine only the Argumentative part, and leaving, it to Philoponus to answer those passages wherein either Paracelsus or Chymists are concern’d: I shall observe to You, that in what he has said
